Eugenic feminism

This article, Eugenic feminism, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary. Reviewer tools: Inform author

Eugenic feminism is a term coined by noted eugenicist Caleb Saleeby to describe areas of the women's suffrage movement which overlapped with eugenics.^[1][2][3] The term describes a branch of the early feminist movement that made use of some of the core principles of eugenics, such as the negative eugenic notion of human betterment through placing restrictions on who could procreate and raise children.^[4] Some eugenic feminists advocated for religious or moral reasons, such as Margaret Sanger who advocated for eugenics as an alternative to birth control and abortion. Sanger sought to "assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit." Sanger having a somewhat different opinion than mainstream eugenicists in her time noted that "eugenists imply or insist that a woman's first duty is to the state; we contend that her duty to herself is her duty to the state."^[5] Sanger supported negative eugenics, the practice of improving human genetic traits through social intervention by reducing the reproduction of those who were considered unfit.^[6] Some early suffragettes in Canada in particular a group known as The Famous Five also pushed for eugenic policies, particularly in Alberta and British Columbia.

In Eugenics there is a focus on women as the bearers of the future “race.” In Galton's original formulation of eugenics women were seen as a mere conduit to pass "genius" from father to son, however as the movement progressed there was increasing importance placed on women as “mothers of the race”. The emphasis of women in eugenics led eventually to eugenicist Caleb Saleeby (1878-1940) coining the term “eugenic feminism” in Woman and Womanhood: A Search for Principles ^[1][2] Saleeby disagreeing with some sexist eugenic principles, in light of new research on heredity at the time notes that:

If it were true that woman is merely the vessel and custodian of the future lives of men and women, entrusted to her antenatal care by their fathers, as many creeds have supposed, then indeed it would be a question of relatively small moment how the mothers of the future were chosen.[...]

But directly we observe, under the microscope, the facts of development, we discover that each parent contributes an exactly equal share to the making of the new individual, and all the ancient and modern ideas of the superior value of well-selected fatherhood fall to the ground. Woman is indeed half the race.[...]

And thus it matters for the future at least as much how the mothers are chosen as how the fathers are.[...] Woman is half the race; and the leaders of the woman's movement must recognize the importance of their sex in this fundamental question of eugenics.

There is possible no Eugenic Feminism which shall satisfy those whose simple argument is that woman must have what she wants, just as man must.[...]

No one will question that the position and happiness and self-realization of women in the modern world would be vastly enhanced by the reforms for which I plead, though some men will not think that game worth the candle.

At the turn of the 20th century as the Women's Suffrage movement began, and eugenic feminists used eugenics in the argument for being granted the right to vote. They argued that not only must their social conditions be ameliorated in order to improve the human race, but also that they must be given power as women’s moral superiority toward social space made them uniquely suited to cleaning up corruption.^[2]

Different versions of eugenic feminism arose between 1890 and 1930, but each shared in the argument that the eugenic decline of the race could be prevented only if women were granted greater political, social, sexual, and economic equality.

In the 1930s eugenic feminism began to decline having as eugenic feminists began to fall out with mainstream eugenicists, and having largely failed to sway the public opinion.^[7]

In Canada, parts of the early feminist movement are inextricably tied to its eugenic past.^[4] The Eugenic Feminist movement movement in Canada was designed to empower women so that they could better produce and raise more "fit" offspring. The ideas of the proto-geneticist Francis Galton took root in Canada from the 1880s and persisted up until the 1950s. The reason for the its prominence is the idea that the social standing of women must be improved their ability to produce desirable offspring.^[8]. Devereux argues that agreement with eugenic thought was not just a tactic to get the right for women to vote. Most women were given the right to vote federally in Canada in 1918, however eugenic ideas persisted well into the 20th century.^[2]

In Canada, all members of the suffragist group known as the "Famous Five" were known to support eugenics^[9] including Emily Murphy and Nellie McClung who pushed for sterilization legislation in Alberta and British Colombia. McClung was one of the most prominent advocates of women’s rights in Canada in the early twentieth century. Among Canadian feminists, McClung was also one of the most vocal proponents of eugenic feminism. She supported forced sterilization by legislation through the 1928 Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta and the 1933 Sexual Sterilization Act of British Columbia^[4]

British eugenicists such as Caleb Saleeby, Karl Pearson, and Havelock Ellis, held that women were essentially reproductive agents.[...] Proponents of mainstream eugenics and some early advocates of women’s rights found common ground. Not all early feminists supported eugenic practices, but the notion of social advancement as intricately tied to reproduction was central to both eugenicists and early feminists.[...] Some suffragists advocated for staunch immigration policies and eugenic practices such as mental hygiene and the social segregation and sexual sterilization of the “feeble-minded.”^[4]

A prominent early figure of the feminist movement was Marie Stopes, founder of the first birth control centre in the UK in 1921, Stopes strongly believed in eugenics and was opposed to contraception and abortion, preferring the avoidance of conception altogether. Marie Stopes founded the Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress as well as the magazine Birth Control News promoting a eugenic agenda. Stopes wrote in 1920, “I would legislate compulsory sterilization of the insane, feeble minded… revolutionaries… half castes”.^[10]

Several feminist reformers advocated an agenda of eugenic legal reform. The National Federation of Women's Clubs, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the National League of Women Voters were among the variety of state and local feminist organization that at some point lobbied for eugenic reforms.^[11]

One of the most prominent feminists to champion the eugenic agenda was Margaret Sanger, the leader of the American birth control movement. Margaret Sanger saw birth control as a means to prevent unwanted children from being born into a disadvantaged life, and incorporated the language of eugenics to advance the movement.^[12][13] Sanger also sought to discourage the reproduction of persons who, it was believed, would pass on mental disease or serious physical defects. She advocated sterilization in cases where the subject was unable to use birth control.^[12] For Sanger, it was individual women and not the state who should determine whether or not to have a child.^[14] Though she believed those who were unfit should not procreate, she rejected some aspects of negative eugenics such as euthanasia of those deemed unfit.^{[15] [16]}

• Eugenics
• History of eugenics
• Margaret Sanger
• Women's Suffrage

• Allen, Ann Taylor. “Feminism and Eugenics in Germany and Britain, 1900-1940: A Comparative Perspective.” German Studies Review, vol. 23, no. 3, 2000

• Devereux, Cecily. "Growing a Race: Nellie L. McClung and the Fiction of Eugenic Feminism." Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2005.

• Erika Dyck, “Sterilization and Birth Control in the Shadow of Eugenics: Married, Middle-Class Women in Alberta, 1930-1960s”, CBMH/BCHM 31, No. 1, 2014

• Soloway, Richard A. “The ‘Perfect Contraceptive’: Eugenics and Birth Control Research in Britain and America in the Interwar Years.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 30, no. 4, 1995

• Zeigler, Mary. “Eugenic Feminism: Mental Hygiene, the Women’s Movement and the Campaign for Eugenic Legal Reform, 1900-1935“. Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, vol. 31

• "Sterilization: Eugenics and the Women’s Movement in 20th Century Alberta.” Canadian Psychology 54.2 (2013): 105-14.

Category:Eugenics

This article, Eugenic feminism, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary. Reviewer tools: Inform author